A bit of an update re the S430.
I gave my company car to my wife for the week, and I drove the 430 all week, and we have driven it all weekend also.
The trip to my office (Group Truck Operations Of Volvo) at Minto is a 103k round trip.
The car has now clicked over 189,000 kms.
The car is averaging 8.8l/100k which I think is really good for a car of this bulk.
The air cond set to fully auto, is so good, once set, I never have to even look at it again.
The rear centre & rear side vents really pump out a good flow of air when needed.
The engine is silky smooth and quiet, right from start up.
The transmission is locked out from torque converter lock up until she is warm.
But that takes less than 5 minutes of driving.
I seem to notice the electronic throttle pedal is also less responsive when cold, I guess to not abuse the drive train until warm.
The Airmatic suspension is quite nice, especially on the rutted, corrugated & undulating roads around the new works of the Bagerys Creek airport building sites.
Quite bad bumps & holes are soaked up with ease at 80kph.
Potholes are soaked up quite well, however it does not like speed humps, no matter what speed they are traversed.
With new cross drilled rotors I fitted to the front and Bendix Euro pads I’ve fitted all round, the brakes are just outstanding, I have never felt more powerful brakes on a car.
Even at 17 years old & 189000 ks, the doors & seals are still rock solid and vault like in their operation.
All rubbers on the doors, windows and boot are still as new.
Not a huge fan of the drivers side convex rear view mirror, and even less of a fan of the multi focal passenger side mirror.
(The 560 external mirrors are THE best in the business.)
The double glazed windows are good at noise & heat insulation , however there is slight delamination happening for 2 or 3mm which is not seen when the windows are up, and hidden within the trim at the top of the doors.
No wind noise is evident at all.
Road noise is quiet, and there are almost zero mechanical noises entering the cabin.
The old tech audio unit with 10 speakers including a sub whoofer is outstanding.
I could only imagine what a newer model with DAB would sound like.
I now have a way to play all my old cassettes, and the 6 stacker in the boot works well.
The CD ROM sat nav is good, and gets you where you need to go, as long as you don’t live in a new estate or road within the last 17 years.
I thought all W220 S Class had soft closing doors, but this car does not, maybe the post September 2002 update had them?
The cream leather interior and all wood trim work has aged very well. All seat bases are very springy, and fully supportive, even after this many yrears & k’s.
The colour of all seats, door trims and carpet are still almost perfect, and will only need a clean.
All internal controls work perfectly, and the seats all work quietly as they should.
Leg room in the rear is outstanding, front legroom is very good also, but I have an issue where the under seat compartment at the front in the drivers seat, keeps rubbing against the back of my short legs.
The dash and all control areas do not show any loss of colour or deterioration of the coloured surfaces at all.
So the moulded colour finish of these areas are rock solid in holding the colour & not deteriorating at all.
Servicing the car is very easy, and an oil change with filter took less than 10 minutes. Love the oil filter access from the front of the engine right up top near the filler.
However I did remove the sump plug the night before to get all oil out as best as possible.
As already mentioned, the only down side, is some of the lower plastic seat trims and covers are embarrassingly bad.
All in all it has been an enjoyable week learning about and driving this car.
